be given, and in what manner. First let us give what is necessary,
next what is useful, and then what is pleasant, provided that they
be lasting. We must begin with what is necessary, for those things
which support life affect the mind very differently from, those
which adorn and improve it. A man may be nice, and hard to please,
in things which he can easily do without, of which he can say,
"Take them back; I do not want them, I am satisfied with what I
have." Sometimes, we wish not only to, return what we have
received, but even to throw it away. Of necessary things, the first
class consists of things without which we cannot live; the second,
of things without which we ought not to live; and the third, of
things without which we should not care to live. The first class
are, to be saved from the hands of the enemy, from the anger of
tyrants, from proscription, and the various other perils which
beset human life. By averting any one of these, we shall earn
gratitude proportionate to the greatness of the danger, for when
men think of the greatness of the misery from which they have been
saved, the terror which they have gone through enhances the value
of our services. Yet we ought not to delay rescuing any one longer
than we are obliged, solely in order to make his fears add weight
to our services. Next come those things without which we can indeed
live, but in such a manner that it would be better to die, such as
liberty, chastity, or a good conscience. After these are what we
have come to hold dear by connexion and relationship and long use
and custom, such as our wives and children, our household gods, and
so on, to which the mind so firmly attaches itself that separation
from them seems worse than death.

After these come useful things, which form a very wide and varied
class; in which will be money, not in excess, but enough for living